Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Being High Calibre
Most of us have the potential for greater achievement in business and to enjoy a higher income. It is likely that you have untapped abilities not yet realized and that even more personal success is just waiting to be achieved. My belief in this has come about from my own personal experience of working with hundreds of people who have improved their ability to cope with stress and developed a high calibre demeanour.
This human machine that we call ‘us’ is so sophisticated that we can call up reserves of power and stamina to see us through the most difficult of situations almost at a moment’s notice. Yet it would be harmful if not dangerous to rely on such reserves full-time in order to perform well on a daily basis. To do so would undoubtedly weaken us and eventually cause sickness.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful if your ‘normal’ state and performance ability was able to be moved up several notches so that you could cope more comfortably and successfully no matter how difficult or stressful the situation may be? Water off a duck’s back! Superhuman! Well, you can achieve this, we all can.
You need to attend to two major influences that affect your performance and one is the mental ‘attitude’ and self perception that ‘tells’ you what you believe is possible based on your past experiences of success and failure. To change your self perception and the way you think will have an enormous effect on everything you do. The second is how efficiently your body and mind is working as a unified whole; you require psycho-physical unity, the subtle and sophisticated co-ordination of your whole being. This comes down to improving your posture, making sure you're breathing well to get essential oxygen into your body and brain. It's the quality that is achieved by using the Alexander Technique, which I have discussed many times here.
Visualise yourself
Close your eyes for a moment and picture meeting someone who carries themselves with an elegant, upright poise, who moves smoothly and unhurriedly, who looks you in the eye and talks clearly with resonance and gives you a relaxed disarming smile. They are open across their chest and they do not cross their arms or legs to subconsciously protect themselves. Their hands are relaxed and open too. In your mind’s eye observe their confidence and calmness. Do they seem in charge of their situation and do they appear trustworthy? Do they look strong yet relaxed and worthy of a high pay cheque? Of course they do. Now put yourself into this picture. See your own face in front of you. If this is where you aspire to be, then this is where you can be. Because you can be the way you want. It’s your choice. 'What you think is what you get'.
Exercise – Visualisation
Visualisation techniques are often used by sports people to break records and achieve new levels of performance. We can use them to help us perform better in business or any other situation.
Give yourself time to regularly visualize yourself behaving and performing at meetings or any situation in the way that you would ideally like. You can do this anywhere; sitting at home in a comfortable chair, or in the bath, on the train, in a waiting room, or a taxi. Allow 5-10 minutes.
Close your eyes and visualize yourself performing the role of your choice in the manner you would ideally like. You may choose to visualize yourself dancing Tango superbly well at a club, participating in a meeting or presenting to a large group of people where you have the audience’s complete attention and you are speaking to them clearly, calmly with relaxed authority. If you are presenting, see yourself speaking unhurriedly and with one hundred percent confidence. You are standing freely with tall, broad stature. You are relaxed inside enjoying yourself and feeling completely secure. You can visualize yourself on that important date, getting the job, acting on film, being beautiful and relaxed.
Using this form of visualization technique to improve your poise will be most effective if you are taking practical steps to improve it, such as with the Alexander Technique or another method.
Natural confidence
We’re not interested in ‘putting on’ a pretence that creates an illusion of high caliber. We’re not dealing with acting here. This is about being the person you have always wanted to be. There are many courses that can help with presentation skills, negotiating and how to read body language etc., but this is not what I’m talking about. I am interested in how you can find your true calm, confidence…… the real you. So that you can be naturally at ease at all times and have the confidence to do the things in life that you really want to do. This quality can only be discovered by ridding yourself of the learnt habits that are interfering with your natural, healthy posture. We have an instinct from birth for healthy natural poise, and this is what we need to revive and it can be done so remarkably simply. When you are truly balanced, well coordinated, free in your joints and breathing fully the qualities we have described will be yours without any pretence. After all, we are all meant to be this way….naturally.
In order to achieve these qualities we must ensure that we are in good balance, released in our muscles throughout our body rather than tensing, lengthening and widening rather than stooping and not interfering with our breathing. This is how our body functions best. This is how we can help ourselves perform to our best. This is how we can earn more money, be healthier and be a shining star of excellence at whatever we do.
